Xmas Carol

Sunday, April 27, 2014

When I wrote Xmas Carol, I used a local NY horse farm as the setting for the story. It's an actual, real-life farm owned by a friend of mine, so I was familiar with the place. It's gorgeous there, which made it the perfect setting for a sprightly tale of horror. That's a photo of the entrance to the farm. Inviting, isn't it?

Well, it now seems that I'm moving to the farm. I didn't see that coming. In a sense, I feel like I'm moving into Xmas Carol. I can't wait for snow to fall during the first Xmas I spend there. It will be very odd and I'm sure there will be a bit of magic to it -- as if I might bump into one of the book's characters as I walk the farm's roads. So far, it looks like the move will take place in late summer or early fall.

I guess this a case of life moving into art. Pick up a copy of the book and you, too, can see the world of Xmas Carol.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Amazon supplies a small space for authors to describe their books -- a very small space. There is room for the author to write a few lines and that's it. It's much too confining. (Hey, Amazon. We're in the ebook age; we don't have to limit descriptions to a space that would fit on the back of a "book". There are no books anymore. See how that works?)

Here's an extended description of the story:

Xmas Carol is a sci-fi/horror novel that takes place in New York in the year 2030. The story ranges from the art and entertainment worlds of Manhattan to a stately horse farm in upstate New York.

The world has changed. For one thing, technology has advanced in ways we can hardly imagine. Critically, one simple device has changed the life of every American. Called Visors, it is a pair of glasses that allows people to access information, lots of information. You can do almost anything with Visors, including visiting faraway friends in full 3D. And in one's home, TV has been replaced by 3D, which provides a life-size image of shows and movies. All the world is a stage. And as technology enhanced the lives of its citizens, America itself changed. In 2030, gay marriage is legal and so is marijuana.

This is the backdrop for Xmas Carol, a suspenseful tale about a mother who lost her four-year-old daughter in a brutal accident. Maria Kennedy was almost destroyed by her loss. But with the help of her brother Liam, she fought her way back and reclaimed her life. Through a sperm donation from her brother's husband, the world-famous artist, Joe Rock, Maria bears another child, a beautiful daughter named Jennifer.

All seems well as the book opens. Jennifer is now four years old and Maria has another chance at protecting her child and ensuring that she has a long, safe life. But as Halloween arrives at the bucolic horse farm where they live, something goes awry. Jennifer is in danger -- though no one in the family is aware of this.

Evil, enhanced by science, is coming to claim little Jennifer Kennedy. Will Maria, her brother Liam and his husband Joe figure out what's happening in time to save Jennifer? The countdown to Xmas is on. And there's far more at stake this year than a simple holiday.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

We humans are plastic. In case you're not familiar with this use of the
term "plastic", it means malleable, changeable, fluid. We bend to
circumstances, and change to accommodate them. This is why we won't be
residing in flesh bodies much longer.

We can be anything. If a human mind was put it into an android or robot
body, the mind would soon think of the new body as its own. And by
"soon", I mean within minutes. The new body's abilities would be our abilities. Humans adapt. It's what we do. This change is going to happen, and what makes this possible is our amazing plasticity.

Let's do an experiment that extends the body. (This isn't my own
creation; I read it somewhere.) Hold a pen or pencil in your hand, and
run the tip over a surface such as a nubby fabric. You can feel
it through the pencil, which has become an extension of your sensory
apparatus. Try it on a few surfaces. Isn't it amazing that so much
information comes to you from this process? We are plastic. We bend to
circumstance. We can be anything.

We sense this when we drive. If you've ever hit a concrete wall or a
tree with your car, you probably said "Ouch!" or some similar expletive.
The reason this happens is that when we're driving, we extend our being
throughout the car. That's you out there, not the front bumper.

We can't remain in our biological bodies. They're subject to ill health
and they eventually wear down and stop functioning -- the ultimate
indignity. We will pass on to other shores, whether machine-like or
virtual. We will change and we will grow. And in the end, we will become
something entirely different.

I write about these changes in my novels. Why? Because they're coming
and we have to start thinking about what this means for humanity. Alas,
no one thinks about the future anymore. But that's a post for a
different day.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

I wrote two sci-fi novels and a book of short stories before beginning Xmas Carol. The first few books taught me how to write fiction, which I'd never tried before. Turns out it's an awesome pastime.

Writing Xmas Carol
was like visiting a magical land. After I chose the story idea, the
tale came to me in pieces. I'd be thinking about other things when
suddenly a piece of the puzzle would appear. In the end, it was like the
story was sent to me. It needed to be written.

Perhaps
you've found yourself drifting away from reading. This is
understandable since most books written these days are boring. I wanted
to write something that had life and energy -- and purpose. I wanted to
write Xmas Carol.

I've always enjoyed sci-fi and
horror books (and movies). But I'm also a rational fellow. I know there
are no such things as witches, ghosts, werewolves or vampires. But I
still had a pressing urge to write within these genres. So I thought
about it for a very long time.

Then one day I asked myself a question: "What is like a ghost?" This simple question was the seed that turned into Xmas Carol. If you like horror and sci-fi, but you've also grown up and don't enjoy nonsense, you may be the perfect reader for Xmas Carol.

This
story is new. There's nothing like it in literature. Take the plunge. I
priced the book at only $2.99 because I wanted to let readers in, not
exclude them. I figured this was a price that just about everyone could
afford. If you read the book, and I hope you will, I doubt you'll be
disappointed.There is nothing boring about Xmas Carol.

I was thinking about a hypothetical alien civilization somewhere out there,
one that had achieved immortality and somehow -- through augmentation
or perhaps by altering their own genetic code -- had stepped up to the
next level of existence, one far beyond our ability to understand.
Specifically, I was wondering what dreams this race might have and what
it still longed to accomplish . . . when suddenly it hit me.

If we were immortal it would eliminate one of the main obstacles in humanity's way -- our short memories.

For
instance, in the 1980s we learned about the dangers of HIV and
discovered how to stay safe. But then a new generation came along,
knowing nothing of what we had learned, and the infection rates rose
once again. Our information, our understanding of various matters, does
not remain with us because, unlike genes, information cannot be
physically transferred to the next generation. In life, any information
can be lost if the next generation doesn't pick it up and carry it
forward into the future.

(In fact, an entire culture
can be lost in one generation if the new one doesn't cling to the
language, customs, etc. of their forbears. Note that suddenly no one can
read. One generation is all it takes to lose a skill.)

If
we were immortal there would surely be new problems caused by
immortality itself; it is not a panacea. But if we could live forever,
what we learned would stay learned. Perhaps that is the key to
our finally becoming an enlightened race. If we all, as a race,
remembered the past and its lessons, perhaps we could finally build a
positive future.

In 2000, Dean Koontz wrote a great book called From the Corner of His Eye. If
you haven't read it, pick up a copy. It's right up there with his
best five books. (How many has he written? About a thousand or
so, right? So being in the top five is saying a lot.)

After
presenting a wild idea in the book -- that there are other
universes where we also exist -- and carrying it off beautifully
(they need to make a movie out of this one) he ended the book with
a note saying that there was actual science that said this wild
idea might be true, that we might have zillions of duplicates,
living lives as real as our own in other universes.

I couldn't get over it: this was real?
So I followed up by reading science books. Little did I know that
science would soon take over my life. I cannot believe how
gorgeous physics is. It's one of the main highlights of my mental
existence. I revel in physics. On the tiniest levels
there is so much is going on. And those itsy bits are what our
reality is made of. The macroscopic world is built on a wild
framework of active, constantly moving, sub-microscopic
ingredients. We don't think about what's "down there" but it
counts.

One of the best things I ever did was read Brian Greene's Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory.
It's not light reading but it's well worth the effort. This
author has an uncanny knack for explaining things. With his help
you can pretty much understand everything. Because that's
what physics is about: everything. There is nothing in the
universe that doesn't obey the laws of physics (at least, as far
out as we can see).

I followed Greene's book up by
reading Daniel Dennet's "Darwin's Dangerous Idea". He's a
philosopher of science, which means it's his job to put together
the understanding that emerges from science. While scientists
discover the facts, Dennett talks about what it means, what
science is telling us. One of the most intriguing things he
taught me is how our minds work. "Consciousness Explained" is
another of his books and I highly recommend it. Fair warning: the
book will immolate your concept of "self". It's like having the
rug pulled out from under you -- but it's exciting because you can
feel that it's true -- he's talking about what goes on in your head all the time. We are not what we think we are.

My
science reading went on and on for years. I read just about
everything I could get my hands on. Where before I devoured
fiction, now I would read only science books. At the tail end of this
process, I now have a tall bookcase completely filled with science
books and I've read almost every one of them. The understanding I
obtained from these guys -- as well as from Richard Dawkins and
Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose and Janna Levin and Victor
Stenger and David Deutsch and a ton of others -- served to define
reality for me. I can never see things the old way anymore.
Post-science, I'm aware of the splendor all around me. Each
instant seems like a perfect, eternal thing (and it actually is).

Science transformed my
life and I guess I've got Dean Kontz to thank for it. I did, too. I
wrote him a nice email telling him that he'd altered my life in a
very positive way. He did and that's the truth. In fact, I might never have written Xmas Carol if I hadn't read that Koontz book.

I asked myself this question the other day and I think the answer is a
qualified "no". I've never liked the movie version of a book more
than the book itself -- though some movies, like "2001: A Space
Odyssey", certainly equaled the book. When a movie breaks new cinematic
ground, as 2001 did, it's difficult to balance the heft of the movie
against a simple story told in words. "The Exorcist" and "Jaws" also
fall into this category, where the movie is so much bigger than life
that it's virtually impossible to compare to the book. This is why I
vote with a "qualified" no.

The other day, regular commenter Annie mentioned reading "84, Charing
Cross Road" while watching the movie, and noted that it was,
line-for-line, the same as the book. I've seen that sort of fidelity in a
few movie adaptations. "Rosemary's Baby" is extremely loyal to the
book. Even the visuals match what is described on the page. Although I
love the movie, I can't say it's better than the book. Ira Levin, the
author of "Rosemary's Baby", is one of the greatest masters of the
English language, as far as I'm concerned. And Roman Polanski, who
directed Rosemary's Baby, is also no lightweight, making a comparison of
the merit of the two works no easy task. Still, I vote for the book. It
seems I always do.

You don't see this sort of page-to-screen accordance very often. If you
did, it would be easier to compare book to movie. In fact, many movies
are so unfaithful that they sometimes lose the very concept of the book.
The movie, "A Home at the End of the World", was a major
disappointment. It's ending is so unlike the book's conclusion that I
was shocked. It seems they excised the meaning of the story to avoid a
slightly uncomfortable ending. I don't know how Michael Cunningham, who
wrote the book (and is the best writer in America today), could have
allowed this to happen. In any case, the book is far superior to the
movie and I believe that's always the case (with a well-written book).

There's so much more in the language of a book than there can ever be in
a visual experience like a movie. Cinematography is a far less exacting
thing than language because visuals are an approximation. Words, on the
other hand, are precise tools with exquisitely clear meanings. For this
last reason, it doesn't surprise me that I can't think of any movie
that seemed better than the book. Can you?

Friday, November 16, 2012

Consider this post an open thread where readers can comment on "Xmas Carol". Actually, anyone can comment whether they've read the book or not. You're all welcome. Tell me what you're looking for in a horror novel. Or let's talk about why horror is losing its punch these days. Jason? Zombies? Demons? Where's the fear?

In my opinion, horror only works when the reader (or viewer) can see themselves in the story. This has been the downfall of sci-fi, in particular. It usually takes place so far in the future that people can't relate. In my books, I try to avoid this pitfall.

For another thing, horror has to be possible. And that means it must be based on real life. As an example, let's use a movie rather than a book (I do this because we've all seen the same movies; not so with books). The reason why "Alien" is such a scary movie is that its premise is reality-based. Placing your young inside a body to gestate? Wasps do this every day, and pity the poor caterpillars into which they thrust their babies. They eat their way out -- just like in "Alien". And those jaws that contain so many teeth in a long, almost tube-like structure? Look at a gharial. It's the same mouth and teeth that we see in "Alien" (though the gharial's teeth are external). So "Alien" is based on things we already know from real life. Something inside you says, "this could really happen!" That's why it's scary.

What are you looking for when you pick up a horror or sci-fi novel? Let me know. And if you've read "Xmas Carol", please consider commenting and telling me (and others) what you thought of the book.

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About Me

I'm Keith O'Connor and I write horror and science fiction. Science fascinates me, especially physics. I drool over physics. I'm a gay, atheist hippie and since the regular world is so boring, I spend my time creating fictional worlds that are a heck of a lot more interesting. It's great fun.